This invention relates to making and using scrapbooks. More particularly, this invention relates to instruments and methods for making and using scrapbooks.
From small beginnings in the early 1990s, the scrapbooking industry has exploded into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Methods of constructing scrapbook pages have evolved from simply cutting and pasting to ever-more-elaborate decorations, with various borders, attachments, covers, layouts, etc.
One popular method of constructing and embellishing scrapbook pages uses eyelets made of metal or other malleable material to attach different sections of the page together. Since eyelets are manufactured in various decorative shapes, they may also be used simply for decoration.
The eyelets are installed by first punching a properly sized hole out of the page material, be it paper, pasteboard, cardboard, foam, or other material. Using a tool known in the industry as a setter, the scrapbooker then installs the eyelet.
Scrapbookers have been inconvenienced, however, with the varying sizes of hole punches and setters to accommodate differently sized eyelets. Scrapbookers must individually purchase three or four different hole punches and three or four different setters. Storing the hole punches and setters is inconvenient and damaging, since most storage methods comprise laying the instruments loosely in storage compartments where their sharp edges, necessary for effective work, are dulled and otherwise damaged.
The present invention provides an apparatus whereby hole punches and setters of varying sizes can be sold and used in a single unit, and provides an apparatus for storing the instruments wherein they are free from damage and wear other than from their intended uses, by storing them vertically and spaced from each other.
Various patents describe interchangeable bits for tools into a common mount. Fruhm, U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,011 B1, describes two-ended screwdriver bits, either end of which can be inserted and used in a mounting tool. Sanger, U.S. Pat. No. 532,823, describes a multiple screwdriver wherein various bits can be inserted. Glover, U.S. Pat. No. 438,150, describes a tool holder wherein various tools can be mounted. Graham, U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,038, describes a multi-purpose tool wherein various tips are stored. A rotational apparatus exposes the needed tip for the job. Lin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,668, describes a screwdriver kit containing four driver blades in a magazine tube inside the handle, wherein the handle can be manipulated to cause the desired driver blade to protrude out of the handle. Hsiao, U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,820 B1, describes a hand tool for driving a fastener about an axis wherein a handle contains an axially extending bore which receives a fastener engaging member, ensuring engagement with an annular deformable member inside the bore. The engaging member receives various bits.
No one, however, has ever put scrapbooking tools into such a configuration, as the present invention does. In addition, no one has provided for the present invention's particular type of storage apparatus for scrapbooking tools.
In view of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that providing a scrapbooking instrument set and method would be a significant advancement in the art.